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Yesterday in class we discussed how society and culture has taught usto see contentment as negative. We have been pushed to consume consumeconsume, and the best way to do that is to convince everyone that theyare not content. That they need something newer, better, moreexciting. That these objects and ideas are the key to findinghappiness. And we are taught that contentment is “settling”, which istaught to be bad. “Why settle for less” is one ad slogan.

I do not believe the best translation of Santosa for our society is“contentment”. Right now, my best word is “acceptance”. We must learnto accept reality for what it is. We cannot wish it to be different.We cannot let our minds wander and race with ideas of how it would bebetter if it were different. What is, simply is. And we must learn toaccept things as they are, and love them as they are, and not want tochange them for no other reason than we love them as they are in themoment. We do not love them for what they once were and hold on tothat. We do not love them for who we want them to be in the future. Welove them for simply being.

And that includes how we perceive ourselves.

Our society does not just demand that we are dissatisfied with what weown, what we have in our lives, it also demands that we are deeplydissatisfied with ourselves. We are too fat. Too thin. Losing too muchhair. Not getting enough sleep. Skin is too rough, too oily, our hairtoo gray, teeth too brown… our libido too weak, our ability to focusnot strong enough, our ability to enjoy not free enough…

All of this is a distraction from accepting what is, and loving everymoment with burning ardor.